Ziad Abdelnour

Ziad Abdelnour is the the founding member and president of United States Committee for a Free Lebanon. He is also listed as an expert on the Middle East Forum's website. With Daniel Pipes he co-published a newsletter that existed from 1999-2004 called the "Middle East Intelligence Bulletin," which provided analyses of political and strategic developments in Lebanon, Syria & the Middle East. Abdelnour is the son of Lebanese industrialist and former MP Khalil Abdelnour (1992-2000) and the nephew of former Lebanese financier and MP Salem Abdelnour (1960-1964 and 1972-1992).

Currently (in 2011) Mr. Abdelnour is president and CEO of Blackhawk Partners, an investment firm with offices in New York City and Arlington, Virginia.

He is listed in Bloomberg's BusinessWeek as Managing Director of TerraNova Capital Partners, Inc. although in 2011 he is no longer affiliated with this company. "Prior to joining TerraNova, Mr. Abdelnour was Managing Director and Head of Venture Finance at THCG, a New York-based merchant banking firm. Prior to THCG, Mr. Abdelnour held senior investment and merchant banking positions with European American Advisors, Inc., Ladenburg Thalmann, Inc., Interbank Capital Group, Drexel Burnham, Inc., American Express, Lamberts High Yield Bond Department where his responsibilities included investing, financing, and restructuring over 100 companies spanning the industrial, logistics, consumer, and manufacturing industries both in the United States as well as in emerging markets. Mr. Abdelnour holds an MBA in Financial Engineering from the Wharton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania and a B.S. in Economics, Summa Cum Laude, from the American University of Beirut."

Quotes
In a November 18, 2005 interview with Trish Schuh for Counterpunch, Abdelnour said:

Iran? We will not let Iran become a nuclear power. We'll find a way, we'll find an excuse- to get rid of Iran. And I don't care what the excuse is. There is no room for rogue states in the world. Whether we lie about it, or invent something, or we don't... I don't care. The end justifies the means. What's right? Might is right, might is right. That's it. Might is right... And Iran's going to be finished and every single Arab regime that's like this will be finished. Because there is no room for us capitalists and multinationalists in the world to operate with regimes like this. Its all about money. And power. And wealth... and democracy has to be spread around the world. Those who want to espouse globalization are going to make a lot of money, be happy, their families will be happy. And those who aren't going to play this game are going to be crushed, whether they like it or not! This is how we rule. And this is how it's going to be as long as you have people who think like me.

Regarding the plans for regime change in Syria and Lebanon he added:

"The end justifies the means. I don't care about how it's done. The important thing is that it is done. I don't rule out force. I'm not against force. If it's an option, it will be an option... I have -- we have -- absolutely no problem with heavy US involvement in Lebanon. On an economic level, military level, political level, security level... whatever it is. Israel is the 51st state of the United States. Let Lebanon be the 52nd state. And if the Arabs don't like it, tough luck."

Affiliations

 * Blackhawk Partners, LLC
 * Middle East Forum
 * Middle East Intelligence Bulletin - Co-Publisher (with Daniel Pipes)
 * Terra Nova Capital Partners, Inc.
 * United States Committee for a Free Lebanon

General Articles

 * Trish Schuh, Faking the Case Against Syria, Counterpunch, November 18, 2005
 * Daniel Pipes and Ziad Abdelnour, Ending Syria's occupation of Lebanon: The US Role, the Lebanon Study Group Report, Middle East Forum, May 2000

Contact
Web site: http://www.blackhawkpartners.com